President Barack Obama took aim at the nation’s failing schools Monday, saying bad teachers should be fired if they’re not cutting it and that students should stay in school longer each year.
Obama also leveled a critique of the Washington, D.C., public schools, saying his daughters wouldn’t get as good an education there as at their private school. "I'll be blunt with you,” Obama answered. “The answer is 'no' right now.”
"You can't defend a status quo in which a third of our kids are dropping out," the president said during a live interview on NBC's "Today Show." "You can't defend a status quo when you've got 2,000 schools across the country that are dropout factories."
The comments seem likely to further exacerbate Obama’s already-strained relations with the nation’s teachers unions, which have objected to Obama’s “Race to the Top” reforms and said Obama and his education chief, Arne Duncan, are scapegoating teachers when the problems are more systemic.
But Obama laid part of the blame squarely on teachers and said bad teachers should be fired if they can’t train kids to succeed.
Obama did praise unions in the interview, pointing out that many are cooperating with states on education reforms.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42758.html
Just when I think he actually says something worthwhile, he goes back to his asskissing ways with the unions. When will he understand that unions are the biggest hurdle to improving schools.
Obama also leveled a critique of the Washington, D.C., public schools, saying his daughters wouldn’t get as good an education there as at their private school. "I'll be blunt with you,” Obama answered. “The answer is 'no' right now.”
"You can't defend a status quo in which a third of our kids are dropping out," the president said during a live interview on NBC's "Today Show." "You can't defend a status quo when you've got 2,000 schools across the country that are dropout factories."
The comments seem likely to further exacerbate Obama’s already-strained relations with the nation’s teachers unions, which have objected to Obama’s “Race to the Top” reforms and said Obama and his education chief, Arne Duncan, are scapegoating teachers when the problems are more systemic.
But Obama laid part of the blame squarely on teachers and said bad teachers should be fired if they can’t train kids to succeed.
Obama did praise unions in the interview, pointing out that many are cooperating with states on education reforms.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42758.html
Just when I think he actually says something worthwhile, he goes back to his asskissing ways with the unions. When will he understand that unions are the biggest hurdle to improving schools.
